Why research is integral to every project

Why do we do research? Whose job is it? What exactly is its role and how does it fit into a project management strategy?

Every technology project can be seen as a process in which a brief evolves into a set of requirements which are interpreted to form a proposed solution that is documented verbally and visually to allow its detailed implementation.

The thread running through all these stages is human agency in the form of interrogation, analysis, evaluation, synthesis and validation. But what all of these processes rely upon is relevant information, which may come either from the target audience, client stakeholders or from any member of the team. Research can be viewed as any information input that grounds a project in the real world.

I created this guide to the role of research in the project process in order to plan research activities at Tribal, locate them clearly within the project lifecycle and communicate their value to account directors and project managers.

Essentially research can support either discovery, validation or optimisation. Any member of the team may contribute, but for each discipline there are a finite set of forms of data generation that play a part.